Today: The Mountain!

Testing the wild clay.
It passed!

I woke with an unending desire to walk in the woods. It's been months since I've gone for a nice long walk up the mountain and today there was nothing else I could think of doing. I couldn't seem to justify just dropping all my work to play about on the trails though, but the more I thought about it the more I longed to field sketch. I wanted to take my paper and water colors and just study various interesting items in the field.

I figured if I opened up my Beatrix Potter book Id look at the plates on her field study, do a few copies and then be done, but it didn't work. I wanted to find my own sticks, bugs and fungus to draw so I packed my backpack and was off.

Before I even stepped onto the trail at the bottom of the hill that leads to the very top of the mountain I noticed that the huge puddle/pond that had always been around the one bend was now just a bunch of wet clay. Yeah, I stood there mouth agape just taking that beautiful sight in.

Clay.
Wild clay.

I conducted a test and the moment I put it to my hands I could tell it would pass the test. It passed. I came ill prepared to harvest pioneering clay but will be back before the rains this coming weekend. My mind is off wondering how it will react as-is on my wheel or if it will be better suited for hand building esp building some jewelry. Is it low fire or high fire? And I wonder, what color will it fire too? Perhaps its a terra cotta like the other samples I found in the gully? Finding clay like this is like instant Christmas!!!

Of course the mountain revealed more presents of color, shape and oddity that pleased every sense. I took a ton of photos but these are the images that really stand out in my mind as having been wonderful finds. Oh, and there were so many hearts to see along the way and of course, I always love to share those too.

A fantastic morning recharging creative batteries.
Here are some of the images I loved from the morning.

Loved the contrast between the
tree and the fungus growing on it.

Loved the shape and color of this fungus too

The swamp on top of the mountain
offers hours of interesting things to look at!

Paws

Hearts were everywhere today.
This one right at my feet.

This heart right at the root!

Set up in the field



Best sketches in the field from this morning:

T-shaped branch with fungus.

A beautiful mushroom from
the floor of the woods.

Flowers are just starting
to bloom.

Another flower study.

Branch study.
I LOVED the color and the wrinkles it had.

Mouse Family (finish)

Mouse family (detail) commission in
watercolor and acrylic on archival bristol.

Today found me busy finishing up a commission for a family of mice. My two little love-y mice have sparked a bit of interest with private collectors and I am very happy to accommodate their requests (jenndanza@gmail.com if you have something specific in mind for you gift giving needs.) The initial steps of an illustration are fun to produced and share, but the final stages are time consuming and require full concentration. No real "action" photo wise here just the finished piece. Just mom, dad and their four babies sitting in the outdoors.

Of course, my little lovers were about the studio too. I've shown them hugging, kissing, dancing and now snuggling under a big blanket. Although the weather has warmed up considerably it's still cold at night and it seemed fitting to snuggle them tight under a big warm blanket.

Full shot of mouse family

"Wrapped"
Graphite, Watercolor and Acrylics on archival bristol.
(Opps....paper watermark steppin in to say, "hi" in this one!)

Happy Valentine's

I had taken two finger-bowls of champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant,
elemental and profound." ~F. Scott Fitzgerald

On every level....

.....drinking an entire bottle of champagne alone on Valentine's Day is wrong! But letting this day go by (which is my favorite holiday of the year) without some type of recognition and without some champagne sipped out of expensive crystal would be utterly, UTTERLY ridiculous. So….when drinking champagne alone we add a spoon to help keep the bubbles fresh when it can't be finished. Yes, a regular spoon seems to keep the bubbly bubbly and then next morning a fresh and bubbly mimosa can be happily enjoyed.

Happiest of Valentine's to you all!

“Wine is constant proof that God
loves us and loves to see us happy.”
(The hearts in the splash and at the base of the stem
happened on their own. I noticed them when I went to
photograph this sketch.)

“Wine gives courage and makes men more apt for passion.”


There has fallen a splendid tear
From the passion-flower at the gate.
She is coming, my dove, my dear;
She is coming, my life, my fate;
The red rose cries, "She is near, she is near;"
And the white rose weeps, "She is late;"
The larkspur listens, "I hear, I hear;"
And the lily whispers, "I wait."

~ Tennyson